---
title: "ARBITRARINESS: Pennsylvania's Costly and Broken Death Penalty System"
description: 'The theory of the death penalty is that prosecutors select offenders who have committed aggravated murder and obtain death sentences for the most heinous…'
canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/arbitrariness-pennsylvanias-costly-and-broken-death-penalty-system'
section: news
date: '2013-01-30T18:02:06-05:00'
updated: '2025-03-14T14:34:16-04:00'
source: 'Death Penalty Information Center'
---

! The theory of the death penalty is that prosecutors select offenders who have committed aggravated murder and obtain death sentences for the most heinous offenders through a scrupulous trial with full due process. The reality in **Pennsylvania** is radically different. Hundreds of inmates have been sentenced to death, but of the cases that have completed the appeals process, 100% have been overturned, mostly because of errors in the conviction or sentencing stages. (Three inmates were executed, but they waived their appeals; the rest of those sentenced to death remain on death row, continuing their appeals.) Moreover, when these cases are submitted for re-trial, presumably with the errors corrected, almost all (95%) receive a sentence less than death (and some are freed completely).

These statistics, collected by Robert Dunham, Adjunct Professor at Villanova Law School, reveal a capital-case selection process that is seriously flawed and a trial process that is rampant with error. From a cost perspective, this is extremely wasteful: every death sentence is a result of an expensive trial and appeal; nevertheless, almost all of these cases ultimately result in a life sentence after even more proceedings. Eleven percent (11%) of the cases requiring a re-sentencing were resolved as less than first-degree murder.

Robert Dunham, [THE FIRST 100 RE-SENTENCINGS: SUBSEQUENT DISPOSITIONS OF PENNSYLVANIA CAPITAL CASES REVERSED IN POST-CONVICTION](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/RDunhamPaReversals.pdf), Villanova Law School, Jan. 28, 2013.